suziebeezieland

our cathy's totally awesome sugar cookies

Our Cathy shared her sugar cookie recipe with us several years ago, and I think it's high time that I repost the recipe. It has become my one and only sugar cookie recipe. They are so rich and good . . . almost like shortbread.  I make them for almost every holiday, to cut out with cookie cutters and decorate.

I want to add that I divide the dough in half when it's time to roll out, and stick the half I'm not working with back in the fridge until I'm done with the other half. This is so rich in butter that it quickly becomes difficult to work with if it warms up, so work with small bits at a time, is my advice. :)

Also, I have to add time to the baking. But my oven runs cold, so it might be because of that. (I have to set my oven for 25 degrees above what I actually want it to be. I should get it calibrated one day.)

Also, do what Cathy says and roll them out thickly.  If you try to make them skinny like regular sugar cookies, it won't work. Okay. That's all my advice. Here is Cathy's recipe in her own words straight from her, Cathy:

Our Cathy's Totally Awesome Sugar Cookies

Cream together 2 cups of butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.

Add:
4 egg yolks (I often substitute 2 whole eggs and haven't noticed a difference in quality)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups of flour and
1/2 teaspoon salt

Knead 7 or 8 times, adding flour as needed to make a non-sticky dough.
Chill for one hour.

Roll and cut with your favorite cookie cutters. (I roll them pretty thick - about 1/4 inch...)
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. You want them to just barely be turning golden brown around the edges.

an autumnal craft

Here's a neat tutorial on how to wax leaves. I think they are so beautiful!

homemade margherita pizza

Our Elizabeth D. posted a link on her tumblr blog (tumblog? I'm not sure how to spell that . . .) to this Quick Pizza Margherita recipe. I was happy to see it, because I love a good margherita pizza, but have never made it myself! And the word "quick" is always good.  Thank you, Elizabeth.

I almost always order a margherita pizza if I'm at a restaurant that offers it. It's interesting to see how different places can make such a simple formula really triumphant, or just okay, or truly awful.

So I made it on Friday night and it turned out yummy and we all three loved it. Hooray!  :)

Also, the only ingredients I didn't have on hand already were the tomatoes and the crust, so that was nice. It was economical.  I just served it with a salad.

The only thing I will do differently next time is use different dough. I used the refrigerated Pillsbury pizza dough that comes in a tube, and you know, I think it's the same as their biscuit dough. The crust tasted exactly like Grands biscuits. So next time I'll get Trader Joe's pizza dough, which does not taste like biscuits. :D

I guess you could also make your own dough ahead of time and freeze it.  Do any of you make pizza dough regularly? Do you freeze it?

the small house movement

I am a fan of small houses. :) I always have been. I don't know why I liked them when I was a kid, although I suspect that good descriptions of cozy cottages in books probably had something to do with it.

Although, I do remember a "design your dreamhouse" project I did in third grade when I lived in Australia that included an indoor swimming pool and horseback-riding arena, so that can't have been a "cottage".

I just read an interesting article that said the "McMansion" fad is dying down in house building.  Some people are warming up to the idea of small houses because of the economy. Here's a quote from the article:

According to the Better Homes and Gardens study, top priorities in a new home include an affordable price, natural light, and comfortable family gathering places. The era of supersizing may be ending, Butler said, with buyers looking for a home that is "right-sized, organized and economized."

That explains just exactly how I feel about my ideal house.  I should note, however, that I only have one, smallish child, who does not take up terribly too much space.  If you have four or five teenaged boys and a Russian Wolfhound, cozy cottage living is probably much less appealing. What is important to you in a home? Please don't feel bad if you want to say "Gigantic." :D I'm just stating my personal preference for cottages. I also like big, rambling farmhouses! And those huge wooden A-frame houses you always see in the snow somewhere, with an entire wall of plate glass windows looking out on a valley of trees, and the living rooms that go up to the rafters, with the gigantic stone fireplaces.

Anyway, here are the links from the small house movement/New Urbanism list I used to have on the old blog, in case any of you are also into looking at pictures of cute little houses, or reading about them. (I don't agree with all the tenets of New Urbanism, for the record, but I like the bits about "don't be greedy" and "be smart about how you use your space" and also "stick the garages in the back and have lots of sidewalks so you can walk around without getting hit by a car.") Our friends John and Eileen lives in Kentlands, which is a New Urbanism development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and I just love that place.

aisslinger loft cube

arvesund

bella beach, oregon

the bungalow company

{image from carré d'étoiles}

carré d'étoiles

the cottage company

the fairytale cottages of carmel-by-the-sea

gypsy caravans

high point, seattle

the historic chicago bungalow initiative

m-house

minihome

modular dwellings

newshour (jim lehrer) special report on new urbanism

olivia beach

once upon a cottage

the poplar community

{image from ross chapin architects}

ross chapin architects

seabrook, washington

summerwood products

treehouse company

{image from tumbleweed tiny house co.}

tumbleweed tiny house company

weehouse

autumn at gooseberry patch

Gooseberry Patch may be one of those online shops you've avoided because of the words "goose," "berry," and "patch".  That's some pretty efficient branding there, when you have three separate, down-home words squashed into one name. 

It's hard to be a little bit country when everybody else is a little bit rock n' roll.

The pared-down mod equivalent is to just have three clean, sparse ciphers in a row: CB2 or DWR.

But Gooseberry Patch has some nifty stuff I think any young bougie-crunchy hipster could own with pride.

For instance, look at this round metal twist candle carver.

{all images this post from gooseberry patch}

Now just imagine a windowsill lined with orange votives or apple votives and walnuts, all in a row. If you had a minimal, clean-lined house style -- maybe some Danish mid-century modern going on, say, with low furniture and light-toned wood -- think how fresh those fruit votives would look.

Now take these squirrel salt-and-pepper shakers.

If you have a bit of a retro vintage thing going on, these would be cute on your breakfast table.

Same with the owls.

Or look at these marshmallow lollipops. The raffia has to go, but if you squinted as if you were bored, and had a face expression that said "I'm thinking about cool indie music and also, I'm not going to waste my life ironing," then you would look really great with one of these in your mouth.

It's all about context.  So embrace Gooseberry Patch.

meet hannah

Meet Hannah Whisper. She is our new cat. :)  We just got her today.

Here's the scoop.  Last Friday I went to pick up Sally Cat's medicine at our vet's, and this cat (her name was "Whisper") was in a cage behind the front desk.  They often have cats they are trying to find homes for, but I'm usually immune.  We already have five pets (Hyacinth the Dog, Sally the Cat, Hugo the bunny, and Fishy-Mishy and Macky, the fish) and a small house, and lots of pet-related hubbub. It's good hubbub, but it's still hubbub.

But I just looked at that cat, and I thought, why, she needs to come live with us.

Her previous owner was a kind 95-year-old woman who has had to enter a home.

We decided that she is a "Hannah," and that "Whisper" is actually her middle name.

We also decided she has the LOUDEST happy purr of any cat we've ever known, and that "Whisper" was meant to be ironic.  She's just precious.

typepad connect

Ladies, I'm giving TypePad Connect a try here in comments. You'll notice that the comments look different. :)

You can now reply directly to each other's comments as well as replying to my original post.

Also, if you have created a TypePad profile, it will show up with a mouse hover over your user pic.  (If you don't have a TypePad user pic, a cute graphic will appear, instead.)

You do NOT have to have a TypePad profile to post comments! That is optional.  You can remain your low-key self if you desire. :)

If you all dislike the new format, we will switch back to how it was before. I'm not married to either format, so no worries if this new option bugs you.  Just let me know.

lisa's bathroom, round one!

Breaking news! Our Lisa SP's bathroom has moved on to Round 1 of voting over at the Apartment Therapy color contest!

She writes, "Please do send out your kind thoughts, as we go up against a living room from Columbus, Ohio."

{cue "The Eye of the Tiger"}

You can go here to vote for Lisa today, October 21st! Vote for "Lisa's Robin's Egg Blue Bathroom"! Voting is open only today! Vote today!

Go, Lisa's bathroom! Go, Lisa's bathroom! Go, Lisa's bathroom!

If you aren't already registered at Apartment Therapy and you want to vote for Lisa, you will need to register here.  Then log in here after you're registered.  Then go here to vote for Lisa.  It's quick and easy. Yay, Lisa!

psalm 96 verses 1-6

I'm memorizing Psalm 96.  I'm a slow memorizer. :P  And I need reminders.

I decided to memorize it because my niece and nephew did this summer, and they were so excited to tell it to me. I planned to have Claire learn it with me, but she's doing Psalm 100 in school right now, and that would be a bit much. Although her young, fresh brain could probably handle it. Me, not so much. :D

I need the verses put up a few places (the kitchen window, my side of the bathroom mirror, next to my bed, in my car) so I can work on it, and I wanted to make them pretty. 

I thought I'd share it with you in case you want to memorize it, too. (You can just print it out.)  Those are just verses one through six. I'll post the rest later. :)

suzanne's ina's parker's beef stew

I regret to inform you that Ina's Parker's Beef Stew was probably not worth the 3.5 hours it took to prepare it yesterday.  It wasn't bad.  It just probably wasn't worth 3.5 hours. 

There's lots of chopping and mincing and dredging and browning, and two hours of in-the-oven time.

(Plus, you have to marinate the meat the night before, which is not hard at all, but don't forget to build in that extra time.)

I am horrid at remembering to read recipes through before I start.  I get bored reading recipes recreationally, but I enjoy them as directions when I am actually assembling the item, just like with Ikea furniture. 

So I marinated the beef last night, but then when I did glance through the recipe this morning and got to "Dutch oven," I remembered, "Hey, I don't own a Dutch oven". (How many times have I done this? You may recall my annual Christmastime "Hey, I don't own a Bundt pan" theme.) 

So! I called my mom (yay, mom!), who told me I could use my four-quart stainless stock pot. I was surprised to learn stainless can go in the oven. Yes, it all can, she said, as long as the handles can go in the oven. And even then, some handles can be covered in foil and will do fine.  Who knew? Probably everybody but me.

There it is on the stove, after we ate, waiting for me to put the leftovers away and to clean it.

I wish I'd called mom first, because this afternoon I went to TJ Maxx looking for a Dutch oven.  They were between $40 (for a small one) and $85 (for a big one), all enameled cast-iron, and I thought, maybe they're cheaper elsewhere. 

But then I left and went to Whole Foods. Which made no sense at all, because I knew the Dutch ovens at Whole Foods would cost more, but I went anyway, because the TJ Maxx Dutch ovens were reddish-orange, and I wanted turquoise or spring green. (This is why I'm not really a good cook.  Excessive attention to appearance and not enough attention to function.) 

Anyhoo, the Le Creuset Dutch ovens at Whole Foods ranged between $185 and $200-something and so I left, feeling faint at the cost of Dutch ovens.

BUT! It was not a complete waste because I got a loaf of really good bread to go with the stew that was not yet cooked and maybe would never be.

The moral of this story is, call people before driving all over town. That's the moral.  The other moral is, read the recipe through, even if it is boring.  The third moral is, Dutch ovens cost more at Whole Foods than TJ Maxx.

What else can I tell you about this stew? Well, Ina calls for an entire 750 ml. bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to be poured over 2.5 pounds of meat as a marinade. 

This made no sense to me, because the meat was completely covered in wine with less than a bottle.  And that left some to drink with the stew. :)

Why in the universe would I decide to second-guess Ina? But I did. I used just enough wine to cover the meat.  But then, later, when I was cooking the stew and got to the part where she says "add two-and-a-half cups of the leftover marinade to the pan and discard the rest," well, if you have skimped on the marinade, you won't have enough.

I had just almost enough, with nothing to discard. 

The other thing I should mention is that you should brown the meat and veggies in a stick (rather than nonstick) saute pan.  I also don't own one of those. I just own a nonstick skillet.  You really can't deglaze a nonstick pan. 

The other thing I should mention is, too peppery! It calls for too much pepper. Cut way back.

My sister cooked the online version, which calls for mushrooms but no bacon. It sounds like she fared better.  Christy, do you have any tips?  Do you think you'll make it again? I'm going to make the online version next time, and see how that goes. I notice the online version has you saute all the veggies together, which makes more sense than the book version.

I gave Hugo the carrot ends, and he ate them and then wiped out.  He keeps me (quiet) company in the kitchen every night when I make dinner. I shut the door and we're in there together in companionable silence. I love it.

So eventually, at 7:30 (which is Claire's bedtime), we ate.  I wasn't exactly disappointed, I just thought it would taste more like superhero stew or something, since it took so long.

Although, Ina does say that she makes it ahead to reheat, because it's better reheated. I'll try it for lunch and report back to you. :)

the glazed apple bars

The apple bars turned out great! (I retain a childlike sense of wonder and delight when things actually turn out well in my kitchen.)

(We decided to each make the stew at our own houses this afternoon and compare notes. It made more sense for dinner plans.) 

Here it is ready to go into the oven. It's hard to go wrong with so much sugar and butter and cinnamon and apples.

I had to add more water than the called-for tablespoon to get the glaze pourable, but otherwise we just followed the recipe.  Bless Meg for posting it. ♥

Easy and warm and perfect for the autumn that I'm pretending we're having.

You'd think an entire jelly roll pan of dessert would last awhile around here. You'd think wrong, my friend.

this-and-that

• This morning I pulled a plastic grocery bag out of the bottom of the plastic grocery bag holder, and it had something in it: the missing head of garlic I couldn't find last week, which made me think I was going completely senile.  I am probably still going completely senile, but I DID BUY THAT GARLIC! HA!

• Tomorrow morning my sister is coming over (we get together on Tuesday mornings), and we are going to make Ina's "Parker's Beef stew", (can you have two possessive proper nouns in a row?)  and Meg Duerksen's "JP's Mom's (Hanna) Glazed Apple Bars". (I guess I could say "The Glazed Apple Bars of JP's Mom, Hanna, via Meg Duerksen's blog" but really, that's just cumbersome.) 

You can tell by these food choices that I continue to stubbornly insist it is autumn here, despite this:

But see those clouds? That's somethin'. That's almost autumn, with those clouds.

• Speaking of Ina, I renewed Back to Basics from the library on Friday, and I think I will have to buy it.  It's fantastic.  It's where I got the idea to make Ina's Parker's Beef Stew.  (I should note that the online recipe differs a bit from the version in the book. Online there are mushrooms but no bacon. In the book there is bacon but no mushrooms.)  I'll let you know how Suzanne's Ina's Parker's Beef Stew turns out.

• Claire and I went to Sear's yesterday after church because the Land's End stuff is on sale . . . most thirty percent off, but some summer stuff even more off.  I found some new shoes! Although I was not looking for new shoes.  I'm excited because they fulfill two of my childhood dreams: to be a ballerina, and to integrate the glamor of patent leather into my everyday life.

I should mention that they were on sale for $27.65.  There was also a very cool olive green color I was interested in, but they didn't have them in my (gigantic) size.  And I should also mention that I own the plain (non-patent) brown version of these (I bought them online last year) and they are incredibly comfortable.

• Bad bunny. Bad, bad bunny.

all-you-can-hold pumpkins for $16.99

Late this afternoon we went to one of our favorite nurseries to pick out pumpkins.

Claire looked for good orange pumpkins with interesting stems.

She was a very thorough pumpkin inspector.

The big pumpkins are all-you-can-hold for $16.99. We have learned from years past that Bob can hold five big pumpkins without problems. Six is pushing it, and seven creates a big pumpkin cascade and they all get smooshed. Trust me.

This is a nursery that does not stock anything too unusual.  South Pasadena is pretty liberal politically, but they are mighty conservative when it comes to their gardens, yes, sirree.

But I find the displays so peaceful and lovely, and I love to come here around four on an autumn afternoon, when the light is dappled and there is a good smell in the air.

This was my favorite pumpkin.  It had a stem like a witch's hat.  I use the past tense because sadly, during the car ride home, it tipped over and the top of the stem got smashed.  I wanted to cry, but there is no crying over spilt milk, baseball, broken chalk, or smashed pumpkin stems. Those are the rules.

I think these white and lightish orange pumpkins are called Cinderella pumpkins or Fairy Tale pumpkins or something like that. Do you know? They are very regal-looking.

More pumpkin inspections in the gazebo.

Claire's favorite part of this nursery is the mushroom patch.  Do you remember the mushroom patch in the nursery in Cambria awhile back?  She has started a casual collection of these.

And the fire lantern plants are lovely, as if miniature, translucent pumpkins grew all over a little plant.

broken chalk & chocolat menier

Well, I think my Anthropologie chalk was a bargain because most of it was broken.

But! Not smashed to smithereens, and it still colors just fine. There is no crying over broken chalk, spilled milk, or baseball. Those are the rules.

I went crawling around on my hands and knees looking in the little cupboard in my dining room for something to dump one box of the chalk onto so that we can get to it easily, and I was so happy when I saw this Chocolat Menier plate. (We have two jumbo cup-and-saucer sets from my aunt and uncle, who gave them to us 10 or 12 years ago. The big cups feel so good in your hands when they are full of a hot drink.)

It's perfect because the girl is drawing on a wall, which is what we do with chalk around here. (We also like drawing on doors and other doors.)

If you look closely at the plate, you'll see that the girl is writing "Eviter les contrefacons!" which means "avoid counterfeits!"  This was the Menier slogan, but English posters and postcards of the Menier girl have her writing "Drink Chocolat Menier!" which is heavy-handed and uninspired as far as advertising slogans go, if you ask me.  (Sadly, people in charge of advertising never ask me anything.)

Chocolat Menier was founded in 1816 in Paris by the Menier family as a pharmaceutical company, although they actually just ran a hardware store and ground some medicinal powders on the side.  People weren't big chocolate eaters at this time (cocoa beans were still pretty exotic and came from far away Nicaragua), and the Menier chocolate was initially used only sparingly to coat bitter pills.  Isn't that interesting?

They were in business for about 150 years, and then eventually sold to Nestlé in the mid-60s. 

The original Menier factory was built at the turn of the 19th century, with expansions during the following years. A building added in 1872 was designed by architect Jules Saulnier, and is now considered "one of the iconic buildings of the Industrial Revolution".  It rests on stone piers and steel pillars in the water.  The pretty glazed bricks on the outside show a trellis, flowers, a silhouette of a cacao tree, and an "M" monogram.

This building is currently headquarters for Nestlé France, is an official French historic monument, and is on the "tentative" list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Go for it, UNESCO, if you ask me.  This is a really neat building. (But UNESCO never asks me anything, sadly.)

(The building and bridge next to this factory were designed by Gustave Eiffel and his architect Stephen Sauvestre for I'Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1898, and was later retrofitted for cooling chocolate.)

Below is an old painted roadside advertisement for Menier, because everybody likes to write on walls. :D

{image from lamazone @ flickr, used with creative commons license permission}

cold-weather annuals

It has cooled off a bit, so working outside is once again enticing and pleasurable.  I've been trying to get some cold-weather annuals into the pots out front and back.  What I really need to be doing is weeding and clearing out the garden beds, but putting flowers in pots is easier and more immediately satisfying, so I've been doing that. :)

Last week Claire and I went to our local Armstrong Garden Center and picked up a few plants. She really wanted a cabbage. I have never really seen the beauty in decorative cabbages, but when I was planting it, all of a sudden, I got it.  It seems pretty now.

I love the fragileness of the poppies.

Yesterday I went to Persson's Nursery with my friend Michele, who first told me about it last year.

We found white stock that smells exactly like cloves.  I also filled up my flat with pansies, violas, and snapdragons.

These are all waiting for me to plant them, so I'm going to log off and go play outside. :)

mug & chalk

I love the sale area of Anthropologie. It is exciting, like a little flea market. 

Yesterday I picked up this bunny mug, these two boxes of colored chalk, and this Farbige Wandtafelkreide "Flipper"* for a mere song.

*"Colored blackboard chalk" . . . where would we be in suziebeezieland without Google Translate, I ask you?  I was excited to find all three of these boxes of colored blackboard chalk, because I've been looking for it for awhile. 

emily & jacob's poetically photographed home

{image from apartment therapy}

I was browsing Apartment Therapy while waiting for my clothes to dry this morning, and was reminded that I've been wanting to point out this house tour in case any of you might like it but have not yet seen it. 

It's strange, because it is really not my style, but it makes me want to change my style completely and start from scratch. :) I've had that feeling often lately, because I am so attracted to the clean, lovely lines of midcentury modern design and the contemporary interpretations of midcentury modern. 

Their color palette is just so soothing. And the woman who owns it is a photographer, so the photos are superb.

lisa's bathroom

Our Lisa SP's bathroom is a finalist in the North (Lisa lives in Minnesota) in Apartment Therapy's design contest! If you'd like to vote for it, go here and give it a thumbs up. (You will need to register here to vote if you're not registered on Apartment Therapy.  Then log in here after you're registered.  Then go here to vote for Lisa.  It's quick and easy.) Yay, Lisa!

soccer news

I have both good news and bad news from our small corner of the AYSO Under 8 soccer empire.

Would you like the good news first, or the bad news?

Let me go ahead and start with the good news. 

Some good news is that last Saturday the girls scored a goal!  There was lots of cheering, excitement, and astonishment.

Related good news is that the girls are definitely improving in game play, both individually and as a team.  It is exciting to see their progress from week to week.

Also, the girls seem to be enjoying themselves very much. They all get along very, very well, and really enjoy chatting, hugging, and laughing, both on and off the field.  This joy in togetherness is never diminished in the least, even when Coach Bob asks them to "focus" or to "pay attention" or to "quit talking and play soccer".

(Here we see Claire mesmerized by her cousin's cool earrings instead of watching the game during her quarter out.)

In further good news, for this past game, no parents accidentally drove to the wrong playing field, with the happy result that we had a team of eight instead of a team of six.

Additional good news is that the team mom designed a really cute banner.

Further additional good news is that the weather has cooled off quite a bit, and playing conditions are very pleasant.

More further additional good news would be that no one has forgotten their week to bring snacks.

Let me now discuss the less good news.

Less good news includes the fact that last Saturday was the final time Coach Bob could run on the field with the girls during a game to coach.  He must now coach only from the sidelines. 

But we choose to remain "cautiously optimistic," because "confidently pessimistic" is for unbelieving naysayers who walk around mumbling things like "chaos" and "pandemonium" and "yikes", as if The Miracle on Ice or Seabiscuit or Lasse Viren or The Red Sox or Herbie the Lovebug never actually existed.

neato kitchen

  

We went down to San Diego yesterday to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with my Canadian mother-in-law.  (Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Canadian girls! I hope you are having a good day.)

She let me borrow her June '09 copy of House Beautiful magazine, because I fell in love with this kitchen! :) (You can click on the photos to see larger versions.)  It's this first shot that did me in . . . I love that green! And I like how, effectively, they've created two, parallel galley spaces to work in. That is kind of neat. And I always like beadboard and hardwood floors and schoolhouse lamps.  And look at those neat, tidy shelves of glasses and dishes.  So serene. :)

I love the dark, rich wood and stone with the green cabinets. It says that green is "Bayberry Green" from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co.  I might have to track that down. :)

 

And look at that shelving on the left that they use as a pantry.  It says it is about four inches deep, which is "just the size of a typical jar, so things don't get hidden behind each other." I think that makes sense.

I thought that little nook in the wall (third pic from the left) was cute, too, with its own light.

I feel a kitchen cleaning and reorganizing coming on . . .